How the censorship campaign against ‘The Outlaw’ and the risqué advertising of
the 1940s movie helped transform it into box-office dynamite.

"1943’s most exciting new screen star," read one line on the poster of Howard Hughes’ western The Outlaw. But it is unlikely at the time that anyone took much notice of that or any other line on the advert – apart from the notoriously long one between actress Jane Russell’s breasts.

The controversy surrounding the film and its advertising campaign was to become a watershed moment for changing attitudes towards censorship in Hollywood. Briefly released for one week in 1943, The Outlaw was rapidly withdrawn from cinemas when the ‘Hays Office’, the censorship authority wing of The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, ruled that the film had broken too many of the decency “codes” – despite the fact that Hughes had already cut 37 scenes from the film in which they felt Russell's breasts were overemphasized.

Hughes himself had designed a special support bra for Russell’s character, Rio, a buxom beauty whom actors Waltor Huston and Jack Buetel fight over in the movie. However, Russell later insisted that she did not wear the bra, and that the director never noticed.

Three years later, however, Hughes rebelliously released the movie again – only this time, it was the original uncut version. Censorship boards complained that the advertising “openly and repeatedly” violated the Hay’s advertising code. The 1946 movie poster was even more risqué, and people complained that it even revealed a fraction of Jane Russell’s nipple. The Hay’s Office revoked the movie's Seal of Approval and many movie theaters refused to show it, but Hughes’ rebelliousness paid off; The Outlaw was a major box–office success wherever it was shown, and Russell was made a Hollywood star.

Aged 89, she told industry blog Filmchat last year that there was “absolutely nothing wrong with the picture.” But she admitted she had been tricked into revealing more of her cleavage by the film’s crew:

“They had two pails put down, and they said, "Now Janie, you come down and pick up the pails." Well, I had the normal costume thing on, so I leaned down and picked up the pails; I had no idea what they were doing, and I sure found out.

“…all it was about was some cleavage! Today they're doing cleavage in the back.”